Until a year ago, when Michael “Stu-Man” Stewart decided to take over as nightshift DJ, he and Tiffany Angelo and James “Jimbo” Smith were known as “STJ,” the morning show hosts on KCAL-FM/96.7 in the Inland Empire.

But when listeners tuned in Wednesday morning all three, along with Steven Kono, who produced the KCAL morning show, were gone, victims of budget cuts at the Redlands-based station where they’d worked for decades.

“It was a really horrible day,” said Daryl Norsell, the station’s program director and afternoon DJ, about the news he broke to his staff on Tuesday. “These are friends you’ve grown up with, you’ve watched their families grow, you know them.”

Norsell said the owners of the station decided it wasn’t bringing in enough revenue to cover expenses and ordered that four positions be cut.

“It was a little shocking, after we spent the good part of the last year, after adjusting our format musically, seeing some real solid success in the ratings. But the dictates that came down were that revenues weren’t equalling what they needed to.”

Norsell said that when he came to work at KCAL 32 years ago Stewart had already been there a decade, and that Angelo and Smith had also been there 20 or 25 years.

“We’ve managed to dodge these kinds of bombs for years and years and years while the rest of the industry’s been hit by them,” Norsell said. “Like I told the staff yesterday, the plane finally found our little island and dropped some bombs on us.”

Smith said he’d worked full-time at KCAL for 21 years and four months.

“I know that because I had to put it on my unemployment I just filled out,” he said Wednesday afternoon. “I remember it because it was a week before my 10-year high school reunion and I was able to go to my reunion and not be that part-time DJ who sells video games at the mall.”

In this 2005 file photo KCAL FM DJ Jimbo, right, banters with fellow radio Jock Tiffany, far left, during the KCAL Kegger, a parking lot party and concert held at their offices in Redlands. Morning show hosts Jimbo, and Tiffany and evening host Michael “Stu-Man” Stewart were taken off the air.(File photo by Carino Casas)

In this undated file photo, radio announcers, Michael Stewart, Tiffany Angelo and Jimbo chat with a caller during “The Morning Stiffy” show at the KCAL- FM studio in Redlands. While Angelo and Jimbo continued on the morning show, in recent years Stewart DJed an evening show. The three DJs were taken off the air, according to social media posts. (Nathan Machain, File Photo)

This undated file photo shows Tiffany Angelo, of Redlands, chatting with a caller live on the air during “The Morning Stiffy” show at the KCAL studio in Redlands. Angelo, fellow morning show host Jimbo and evening host Michael “Stu-Man” Stewart were let go, according to social media posts on Wednesday, Jan. 10. (File photo)

Redlands-based radio station 96.7 FM made changes to it on-air staff Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018. (File photo by Carino Casas)

DJ Jimbo of KCAL 96.7 FM, shown here at Hangar 24 Brewery in Redlands in 2015, was one of the DJs let go by the station. (File photo by Kurt Miller)

Smith said he got the news Tuesday morning, after the end of what turned out to be his final show on KCAL. Angelo got called in for the news first, and when she emerged he asked her if she was ready to cut a commercial for the show, he said.

“She said, ‘Well, I don’t think we’re going to have to do that – get ready for it,’ ” Smith said. “It was a blindside for sure.”

Listeners were blindsided, too, discovering the news either by tuning into the Jimbo, Tiffany & Patrick show on Wednesday – Patrick Tish was the third co-host on the morning shift and was retained by the station – or by the station’s announcement on the trio’s Facebook page.

“They have had a huge impact during their decades long reign over Inland Empire radio, and have entertained us all for so many years,” the post read in part. “We can’t say enough about what good people they are, and we hope they all have a new microphone to talk into soon.

“They want to thank you for your endless support and passion for what they put out on the airwaves. We’ll be playing a ton of rock for you every morning, and we hope that you’ll hang with us as our mornings evolve into something new on 96-7 KCAL Rocks.”

Comments on the post from listeners were rough on the station and its decision.

“I’ve grown up to KCAL and listening to Stu, Tiffany and Jimbo,” wrote Alexandra Perez-Fields. “Whoever made this decision should be fired!”

Tish will work the mornings solo now, delivering what Norsell said would be a musically intensive show. Frank “Frank-O” Garcia, the station’s current production director, will take over the night shift vacated by Stewart.

Smith said he loved to find another job in radio in Southern California or maybe Las Vegas, but he’s got other ideas bubbling up, too. He and an animator friend already were talking about a project in that field. He recently shot a TV pilot and hopes to see that project reach the air. And Tuesday night, only hours after he was laid off, he met with partners in a project they’re calling Jimbrew Bus Tours, a sort of party bus business to hit craft breweries, comedy clubs, and other fun spots – Redlands’ J. Riley Distillery is a partner.

“It was the greatest job ever with the worst hours ever,” Smith said of the morning show he co-hosted. “But you know, you’d wake up every morning with that alarm going off at 4 a.m., you’d be a little bit mad at your career choice.

Peter Larsen has been the Pop Culture Reporter for the Orange County Register since 2004, finally achieving the neat trick of getting paid to report and write about the stuff he's obsessed about pretty much all his life. He regularly covers the Oscars and the Emmys, goes to Comic-Con and Coachella, reviews pop music, and conducts interviews with authors and actors, musicians and directors, a little of this and a whole lot of that. He grew up, in order, in California, Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon. Graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. with degrees in English and Communications. Earned a master's degree at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Earned his first newspaper paycheck at the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, fled the Midwest for Los Angeles Daily News and finally ended up at the Orange County Register. He's taught one or two classes a semester in the journalism and mass communications department at Cal State Long Beach since 2006. Somehow managed to get a lovely lady to marry him, and with her have two daughters. And a dog named Buddy. Never forget the dog.

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